Adapted into a performance ritual that has toured nationally, listeners learn about the legacies and stories that become a part of us, and are invited to reflect on all that they are carrying and what they will choose to let go.

This work was a collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, supported by Chamber Music America Artistic Projects.

“From Roots We Carry” is an installation and performance ritual that explores the complex intergenerational legacies that live inside us.

The installation dances with string and suspension to convey how our memories, dreams, ideas, and traumas intermingle, and are passed through familial bonds as inheritance. Fabric obscures areas of the installation just as our own anxieties and insecurities are often hidden from our conscious minds. Condensed milk cans suspended and stacked represent both the gifts given to us by our ancestors and the heights and weight of those expectations we feel obligated to reach. Floating colorful rattan baskets play with themes of porous and imporous, holding material yet prone to leaks. They are a metaphor for our consciousness, an ever-evolving sieve for our experiences—some things are captured, some things pass through.